of his expedition. On the 20th of the same month (of March, 1807)
another English expedition under General Fraser, having sailed from
Sicily to Egypt, took possession of Alexandria. But every subsequent
step they took proved unfortunate: after severe loss the English were
compelled to enter into a convention with the Turks, and wholly evacuate
Egypt on the 20th of September.

In January, 1807, an English expedition landed near Montevideo, and
carried that city by assault. Sir Home Popham, the admiral, was
recalled, and tried by a court-martial, on the ground that he had
undertaken this warfare without due authority; but he escaped with a
reprimand, and new reinforcements were sent out, first under General
Crawford, and secondly under General Whitelocke. The last-named officer
invested Buenos Ayres, and commanded a general assault of that town on
the 5th of July; on which occasion, notwithstanding the excellent
behaviour of the soldiery, he was repulsed with a loss of 2000 killed,
wounded, and prisoners; and reduced to such extremity, that he was soon
afterwards glad to enter into a convention, and wholly withdraw the
armament. The timid and incompetent Whitelocke was tried and cashiered.
Some of these disasters were unknown at the time when Bennigsen demanded
an armistice; but the general ill success of the British expeditions was
notorious, and produced without doubt a very serious impression on the
mind of Alexander.

The armistice was ratified on the 23rd of June, and on the 25th the
Emperors of France and Russia met personally, each accompanied by a few
attendants, on a raft moored on the river Niemen, near the town of
Tilsit. The sovereigns embraced each other, and retiring under a canopy
had a long conversation, to which no one was a witness. At its
termination the appearances of mutual goodwill and confidence were
marked: immediately afterwards the town of Tilsit was neutralised, and
the two Emperors established their courts there, and lived together, in
the midst of the lately hostile armies, more like old friends who had
met on a party of pleasure, than enemies and rivals attempting by
diplomatic means the arrangement of differences which had for years been
deluging Europe with blood. Whatever flatteries could be suggested by
the consummate genius and mature experience of Napoleon, were lavished,
and produced their natural effects, on the mind of a young autocrat, of
great ambition, and as great vanity. The in